Chapter 13 - The Ledger With Missing Pages
The storm cleared at noon.
By two, the mountains shone beneath a hard blue sky.
No investigator arrived.
Instead, a rider came from Blackridge.
The territorial agent had been attacked on the road.
Alive, but injured.
Delayed at least two days.
Silas had bought himself time.
Ethan doubled watches around the ranch.
Voss remained inside under guard.
The doctor asked for paper.
“To confess?”
“To document everything.”
Martha gave him some.
“You expect forgiveness?”
“No.”
“Good.”
He looked tired.
“I stopped expecting that years ago.”
While Voss wrote, Martha examined the recovered documents.
The bottle behind the flour barrel proved the compound existed.
Voss’s instructions proved he administered it.
What they still lacked was Silas’s unmistakable authorization.
His initials helped.
But Silas could deny them.
Then Caleb remembered something.
“The Blackridge ledger.”
Ethan looked at him.
“What ledger?”
“Silas kept payments.”
“Where?”
“Office.”
“Useful.”
“Not in Blackridge.”
Caleb swallowed.
“I stole it.”
Every head turned.
“You what?” Elias asked.
“When I decided to stop working for him.”
“Where is it?”
Caleb pointed toward the barn.
The ledger was hidden beneath floorboards in an unused stall.
Ethan retrieved it.
Pages documented bribes.
Sheriff payments.
Survey expenses.
Money to Dr. Voss.
Payments to Caleb.
Caleb did not ask Ethan to ignore them.
“I’ll answer for what I did.”
Ethan looked at him.
“Yes.”
Caleb nodded.
It was, strangely, the beginning of repairing something.
Then Martha reached a section with torn pages.
“Missing.”
Caleb cursed.
“Those were there.”
“When?”
“Two weeks ago.”
“Who knew you stole it?”
“No one.”
“Where was it hidden?”
“Only I knew.”
Ethan looked at him.
“Someone followed you.”
Possibly.
Or Caleb had spoken without realizing.
They compared torn edges with the scrap found in the pantry.
It matched.
The paper beneath the onion had come from Silas Crowe’s private ledger.
Martha carefully aligned it.
Enough of another line became readable.
Voss — C. residence — second stage.
Below:
Upon certification, transfer deed.
The torn page was direct evidence.
But only a fragment remained.
“Where’s the rest?” Ethan asked.
Caleb thought.
“Mrs. Pierce burned a page.”
Edith shook her head.
“From the household notebook. Not this.”
Someone else had stolen the ledger pages.
Possibly Silas himself.
But then why leave the book?
Martha examined the spine.
A folded sheet slipped from behind the leather backing.
Caleb stared.
“I never saw that.”
It was a letter from Silas.
To Dr. Voss.
Lucian,
Ruth’s decline must remain gradual. An obvious death creates scrutiny. Once she is certified incompetent and Ethan is removed from management, the trust allows our executor to approve the ridge transfer.
Destroy this after reading.
Voss had apparently hidden it rather than destroy it.
Insurance.
Martha looked at him.
“You kept this?”
“I stopped trusting Silas years ago.”
“You continued helping him.”
“Yes.”
Human beings were remarkable in their ability to recognize evil while participating in it.
Ethan folded the letter.
“Now we have him.”
A gunshot echoed outside.
Everyone ducked instinctively.
Another shot.
Not toward the house.
A signal.
Ranch hand Tommy burst through the door.
“Fire!”
Smoke rose from the barn.
Silas was not attacking people.
He was attacking evidence.
Caleb’s ledger had been removed just in time.
The men rushed to save animals.
Martha remained with Ruth and the papers.
Smoke entered the kitchen.
Ruth said calmly, “They’re desperate.”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
Martha looked at her.
Ruth smiled.
“Desperate men make mistakes.”
She was right.
When the fire was controlled, Ethan discovered tracks behind the barn.
They led to a horse.
Then toward Blackridge.
One rider had dropped something.
A silver match case.
Engraved initials.
S.C.
It was circumstantial.
But insulting in its arrogance.
Silas Crowe had personally come to destroy evidence.
Ethan returned inside covered in soot.
Martha stared.
“You look awful.”
“You said that yesterday.”
“I believe in consistency.”
He smiled.
Then his expression softened.
“You all right?”
“Yes.”
He touched her cheek.
Only briefly.
A streak of soot remained where his thumb passed.
Neither moved.
Martha’s heart suddenly behaved like an unreliable horse.
Ethan noticed.
His eyes lowered toward her mouth.
Then Ruth called from upstairs.
“Ethan!”
They jumped apart.
Martha turned bright red.
Ethan looked toward the ceiling.
“I swear she has supernatural timing.”
Martha whispered, “Go.”
He did.
Ruth wanted to tell him she could stand.
With assistance, she placed her feet on the floor for the first time in days.
Ethan knelt before her.
Martha supported one arm.
Ruth stood.
Shaking.
Weak.
Alive.
She took one step.
Then another.
Everyone in the room smiled.
Until Ruth looked toward the window.
A black carriage had stopped near the front gate.
Silas Crowe stepped out.
This time he came without Dr. Voss.
Without hired men.
Without a weapon anyone could see.
He carried only a leather case.
Ethan descended the stairs.
Silas entered when invited.
“I’ve come to make an offer.”
Ethan laughed.
“You burned my barn.”
“Can you prove that?”
“Not yet.”
Silas placed the case on the dining table.
Opened it.
Inside were bundles of money.
More than Martha had ever seen.
Silas looked at Ethan.
“Sell me the northern ridge. Hand over the documents. Your mother receives the finest medical treatment money can buy.”
Ethan stared at the cash.
Then at Silas.
“And if I refuse?”
Silas smiled.
“Then by tomorrow morning, everyone in Blackridge will hear a very different story.”
“What story?”
“That Martha Boone poisoned your mother.”
Martha became still.
Silas turned toward her.
May you like
“And I already have witnesses willing to swear they saw her carrying the poison into this house.”
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